


With This Ring, You Bloody Bastard

by AsheTarasovich (natalieashe), Boffin1710, natalieashe



Series: Secret Garden [8]
Category: James Bond (Craig movies)
Genre: Fluff, I So Hate You But Take Me To Bed After I Yell At You Fluff, Idiots in Love, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Romance, Snark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-12
Updated: 2015-05-12
Packaged: 2018-03-30 07:02:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3927361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/natalieashe/pseuds/AsheTarasovich, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Boffin1710/pseuds/Boffin1710, https://archiveofourown.org/users/natalieashe/pseuds/natalieashe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alec comes home from a mission determined to form a more permanent arrangement with his Quartermaster.</p>
            </blockquote>





	With This Ring, You Bloody Bastard

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Fusterya](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fusterya/gifts).



> From a prompt on the 00Q FB group from our dear friend who noticed Alec was wearing a ring...

The garden was his safe haven from the chaos that was never ending in TSS.   Quiet solitude with only faint lights from the city seeping in and at this time of night the sounds of the city had quieted to a manageable echo.  Q sat curled up in a chair at the outside table. Blanket wrapped around him.  Cup of coffee laced with whisky clutched in both hands.     
  
Alec had been out in the field for the last two months.  Long term joint mission with the Stateside DEA.  Somewhere in the middle of nowhere in bloody fucking Texas in the States.  He had returned today.  Q had seen him briefly in passing but they hadn't a chance to actually speak. Alec had been onto Medical, Psych and then debrief with Tanner and M.  Q had come back to the flat 3 hours ago and was still waiting for Alec to appear.     
  
Q got up and wandered into the kitchen dragging the blanket behind him.  Refilling his cup with coffee and another splash of whisky, he headed back out to curl up again in the cool night air.  A few minutes later, he heard the front door of the flat open and close.

Alec took his time coming to find him.  It wasn't unusual - Alec often needed time to feel comfortable back in their own space - but Q was impatient to see him.  He was about to go looking for him when the garden door opened and Alec was framed in the doorway, light turning him into a tense silhouette.

"Alright?" Q asked softly, cupping the cup protectively until he assessed Alec's mood. Alec nodded. Moved into the garden, walking slowly around the pots, checking his plants.  He didn't appear to be in any pain, but was definitely distracted.  "I heard you lost someone." Better to get it out there. Not let it fester.

Alec's head shot up and he glared through the darkness. Then he was across the garden and looming over Q, one large hand curled around Q's neck, and he was kissing him breathless.  Q juggled the cup to keep from spilling his coffee and kissed back, keeping up as best he could, failing to match Alec's desperation.  When the kiss was done Alec rested their foreheads together, eyes closed.  "Sorry.  Not one of ours but...  Too fucking young."

Q patted the bench beside him and Alec sat heavily, staring moodily into the dark.  "It got me thinking about some things."  After a moment he pulled a small but bulky padded envelope from his pocket and offered it to Q.  "Here.  Got you something."

Q cautiously picked up the package turning it over in his hands.   This was not the normal “I got you something” that Alec brought home from missions.  Most times it was a knife thrown on the table or the odd non issue gun retrieved from somewhere and a comment of “See what you can do with that.”   As a matter of fact, their “junk drawer” it the kitchen consisted of treasures as such, knives, gun parts, bits and pieces of incendiary devices. Whereas the ‘normal' household’s held string, pencils, pins, rubber bands, glitter, glue, etc.

This was something new that he held in his hands.  Q glanced momentarily at Alec who was staring off into the darkness, before opening the padded envelope.  Inside was more padding containing a small fancy box and a soft black length of ribbon that had obviously been tied around the box at one time.  He laid the envelope on the table hesitantly staring at the box in his hands.

Slowly, Q opened the box.  Nestled inside in between two layers of heavy bunting were two highly polished intricately etched matching silver bands.  He stared at them in disbelief.  They didn’t do this.  They skirted around things like this.  They didn’t even say the words out loud to each other.   If you don’t openly say them, it doesn’t take on a life of its own, you can manage then.  “Bloody hell…”  He stammered and then realized he had actually said it out loud instead of inside his head.

Alec shrugged, said nothing, but patted at his pockets searching for his cigarettes. A nicotine stick security blanket for when things were about to go to hell.  He didn't acknowledge the tremor in his hand as his lighter flared, or that the first long calming drag failed to hit the spot.  A few more moments of awkward silence and then "I thought it was time."  
  
He watched out of the corner of his eye as Q dropped the box onto the table like he'd been burned and continued to regard it like it was somehow dangerous, untrustworthy.  Alec was a bastard and he knew he was pushing, even after everything they'd said...   
  
"Time?" Q exclaimed angrily.  "We... This had better not be what I fucking think it is Alec.  This isn't us!"   
  
"Why isn't it?  Other people do it."  Alec refused to meet Q's eyes. Didn't need to look at him to see how furious he was. Smoke curled around them in the oddly quiet garden. "We have a cat, established garden flat. We have a life together already. It's not that huge a step.  So... I bought us rings."   
  
Alec jumped when Q's cup slammed into the table, the last dregs of coffee splashing out.  "No!  My cat. Your bloody flowers. MI6's fucking flat. Living together is just easier. Convenient.  This..."  He gestured at the box.  "This is not right. Take them back!"

It wasn’t truly anger at the entire surprising predicament.  Some of it was fear.  Complete utter bloody fucking fear.  But outwardly, it exploded as anger.

“We just can’t.  No!” Q started to reach out for the box again.  His hand shook so he quickly pulled it back hoping Alec had not seen.  “This works.” He continued waving a slender hand between the two of them.  “This….” He pointed at the box as if it was something horrific and bloody lying on the table as if it had just had succumbed to an untimely death.

“And why the bloody fuck not, Q?”  Alec snarled at him.  “Let’s see if all that intellect of yours can come up with a better reason than ‘we can’t’. That doesn’t even make sense, Q.”

“Because that... those...” Q stammered pointing at the box again.  “We… you can just walk away now if you want.  It’s going to be bloody bad enough when something happens to one of us.  You fucking know it will! “ Q snatched the pack of cigarettes from Alec lighting one up himself.  “You bought rings!  You fucking bought rings!   We can’t even bloody fucking say I love you out loud to each other and…”  Q stopped in mid sentence, hand paused gesturing in midair as it occurred to him what he had just said.  He silently sat back in his chair.  Took a long drag off his cigarette, smoke curling up into the air, and stared at the box containing the two rings that sat in front of him.

"This is me saying I don't want to walk away, Q. Not ever."  Alec stood and walked into the shadows. All that was visible was the glowing tip of his cigarette that briefly illuminated his lower face as he inhaled. He looked skywards. Too much light pollution to see stars. Too bloody down to earth to consider a moonlit proposal to be romantic, if that's what the fuck this was. Christ, he hadn't really thought this through but now they were here...  
  
The two flats above were in darkness. Alec assumed they had somebody to be with.  Maybe he wanted to be sure he had someone too.  "Do you really think it wouldn't hurt just as much if you walked away now? Or that I would grieve less if something happened to you because we didn't do this?"   
  
"Precisely. So why the fuck-?"   
  
"Because a ring says the words we don't" Alec interrupted. He still couldn't, not looking at Q's brow creased with doubt and the defensive set of his body. If he hugged himself much tighter he'd disappear. Maybe that's what he wanted.   
  
"Mouths say the words, Alec. A ring says I'll shackle myself to this bloody bastard for better or for worse. And we know that there's a hell of a lot more 'worse' in our lives than 'better'!"

“But there is “better’, Q.  Don’t you think other people’s lives aren’t made up of ‘better’ and ‘worse’?  Ours is just 90% more extreme than theirs are most of the time.  But it bloody forces us to feel more Q, even though we do our fucking damnest to try to ignore it all the time. “

“You still haven’t given me a good reason as to why not, Quartermaster.”   Alec turned towards the doorway leading into the flat considering going inside to leave Q out here to think.

Q sat staring at Alec hovering in the darkness not really knowing what to say, wishing for all the world he could just disappear into this blanket and not be visible.  He so wanted to yell at Alec because the bastard always pushed the limit in everything that occurred between them.  This was just another aspect of their lives together. 

Q sighed and slowly reached out and picked up the box.  One finger poked at the rings lying in the box cautiously as if they were poisonous insects.  “You don’t expect me to dress in a suit and say fluffy words in front of others do you?  Because I’ll refuse you know.”  

"Getting you to stay in the room long enough to say whatever fucking words you please will be a bloody achievement. I wouldn't push my luck on that, though I might insist James looks them over first. Makes sure they're appropriate. Some guests and suits, non negotiable. We have friends... One or two."  
  
Q frowned up at him. In the dark garden he looked like a pale pissed off ghost. Alec valued his balls too much to call him vulnerable but there was uncertainty and fear. "I'm not saying I have this shit all figured out Q, but I want this."  He picked up the larger ring from the box, and slid it onto his finger. It felt alien and weird. He nodded at the box. "Your move."

Q started to reach for the box and stopped.  Alec’s heart sank.  What the fuck had he been thinking.  He should have known that the uncertainty of their lives would be too much for Q to overcome and consider this next step.  

“You are so fucking bossy sometimes.  A fucking bastard, Trevelyan!  If we are going to do this, then do it right.”  Q held his left hand up to Alec and waved it at him.   

Alec scowled at him but grabbed up the other ring from the box and slid the silver band onto Q’s finger.  It was too big for his ring finger, so Alec slid it onto his middle finger instead.  He couldn’t help but think how appropriate that was considering their relationship.

“Are you happy now?”

“Oh just fuck off you little shite.” Alec moved to him pulling Q out of his chair and in tightly burying his face in Q’s dark curls.

“You know, it's 2 am and I’m starving.  You could make me breakfast.  Eggs and toast.  Bacon.  Definitely lots of bacon.” Q murmured into Alec’s shoulder.

"Just because I've persuaded you to say yes, doesn't give you a license to demand service" Alec grumbled into his hair.  
  
He felt Q began to shake with laughter in his arms. "If I was after service, food wouldn't be top of my list you wanker."   
  
Alec chuckled, wrapping the blanket around Q's shoulders and guiding him into the kitchen. "Later. Breakfast, sleep, service."   
  
Q scooped Amelie into his arms and nuzzled into her soft fur while Alec started cooking.  "Marriage, Amelie" he cooed, scratching at the purring cat's ears. "What do you think to that?"     
  
Amelie squinted at Alec and huffed, pushing her black and white face into Q's hand and twitching her whiskers. If she could have turned her back on him, the bloody haughty animal would. "Yes, I think it's the worst idea the bloody bastard ever had too, but let's humour him. We can always shoot him once the register's signed."   



End file.
